A Boston College sports blog capturing the highs and lows of being a BC fan living 1,000 miles from Chestnut Hill.

Tuesday, October 04, 2005

Coaching 101s: Is TOB a Welsh Clone?

We are 101 games into the TOB era. I don’t know if many BC fans thought it would last this long. We assumed that BC was a chance for TOB to get some head coaching experience before returning to UVA to take over for his mentor George Welsh. However, things didn’t go as expected. When the Cavaliers’ all-time winningest coach retired, the ‘Hoos looked elsewhere. As Ian recounted, they jumped at the chance to get Al Groh and avoided hiring a George Welsh clone. Is the Welsh Clone assessment fair? Through 101 games it looks pretty reasonable.

Coach

W

L

T

Welsh’s first 101 games at Navy

55

45

1

Welsh’s first 101 games at UVA

58

41

2

O’Brien’s first 101 games at BC

61

40

0

Al Groh hasn’t coached 101 games at Virginia, but here is his record through his first 101 games as a college head coach:

Groh at UVA and Wake

45

56

0

This game is very important for O’Brien. A win and I think we can count on maintaining our Big East level of success in the ACC. Lose and we are scrambling to stay bowl-eligible.

Next week I’ll dive into BC’s place in the college football pecking order and compare TOB’s success to other Boston College coaches.